Global Sustainability Outlook Reports

The Global Sustainability Outlook report is an annual publication by the Lewis Center, first launched in 2021, that shares insights from member experts on the key sustainability issues that will impact strategic real estate and land use decision-making each coming year. The report focuses on 5 key issues every year that will shape real estate decision-making in the months ahead and beyond.

ULI Global Sustainability Outlook 2026

Read the report here!

Top 5 Topics Shaping Sustainability for Real Estate in 2026

  1. Growing recognition of financial risks and the business case for decarbonization
  2. Standardizing and integrating sustainability into investment models
  3. Shift towards whole-building and scalable decarbonization solutions
  4. Rise of artificial intelligence as both a sustainability tool and a resource challenge
  5. Operationalizing physical resilience in response to escalating climate impacts.

Webinar coming soon!

Past Reports

ULI Global Sustainability Outlook 2025

  1. Simplifying goals and prioritizing decarbonization
  2. Emphasizing the impact of building materials
  3. Focusing on occupiers—demand, health, and well-being
  4. Sourcing and storing green power
  5. Investing in resilience

 

 

ULI Global Sustainability Outlook 2024

  1. Linking sustainability performance and financial performance
  2. Going back to basics to advance decarbonization
  3. Complying with an evolving regulatory landscape
  4. Prioritizing resilience as extreme weather intensifies
  5. Approaching sustainability holistically

 

ULI Global Sustainability Outlook 2023

  1. Adjusting ESG strategy for macro-economic complications
  2. Embedding transition risk in transactions & valuations
  3. Harnessing the power of collaboration
  4. Addressing global flood challenges
  5. Responding to government influence

 

ULI Global Sustainability Outlook 2022

  1. Advancing the net zero agenda
  2. Navigating the reporting and measurement landscape
  3. Confronting climate risk
  4. Prioritizing existing buildings
  5. Focusing on building materials

 

ULI Sustainability Outlook 2021

  1. Real estate’s increasing role in advancing sustainability throughout the market
  2. Increased appetite for ESG investing
  3. Heightened emphasis on health and social equity
  4. A baseline expectation for energy efficiency in real estate
  5. Tenants driving sustainability innovation
  6. Emissions reductions through embodied carbon of building construction materials
  7. Increasingly grid-interactive buildings
  8. Resilience and climate risk as a priority for investments
  9. Water as a resource to be conserved and leveraged
  10. Waste reduction over a building’s life cycle